NAIROBI: Two Belgian teenagers found with 5,000 ants in Kenya were given a choice of paying a fine of $7,700 or serving 12 months in prison — the maximum penalty for the offense — for violating wildlife conservation laws.

Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species.

Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house in Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. They were charged on April 15.

Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, said in her ruling that despite the teenagers telling the court they were naïve and collecting the ants as a hobby, the particular species of ants they collected is valuable and they had thousands of them — not just a few.

The Kenya Wildlife Service had said the teenagers were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.

“This is beyond a hobby. Indeed, there is a biting shortage of messor cepholates online,” Thuku said in her ruling.

The illegal export of the ants “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits,” KWS said in a statement.

Duh Hung Nguyen, a Vietnamese national, told the court that he was sent to pick up the ants and arrived at Kenya’s main airport where he met his contact person, Dennis Ng’ang’a, and together they traveled to meet the locals who sell the ants.

Ng’ang’a, who is from Kenya, had said he didn’t know it was illegal because ants are sold and eaten locally.

PARIS: Algeria has issued two arrest warrants for acclaimed French-Algerian writer Kamel Daoud, the French Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, as tensions surge between the two countries.

The Algerian judiciary informed France of the move, the Foreign Ministry said.

“We are monitoring and will continue to monitor developments in this situation closely,” he said, stressing that Daoud was “a renowned and respected author” and that France was committed to freedom of expression.

In 2024, Daoud won France’s top literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his novel “Houris,” centered on Algeria’s civil war between the government and radicals in the 1990s.

The novel, banned in Algeria, tells the story of a young woman who loses her voice when a hard-liner cuts her throat as she witnesses her family being massacred during the war.

In November, the woman, Saada Arbane, told Algerian television, using a speech aid, that the main character in the book is based on her experiences. Daoud, 54, has denied his novel is based on Arbane’s life.

Arbane says she told her story during a course of treatment with a psychotherapist who became Daoud’s wife in 2016. 

She has accused Daoud of using the details narrated during their therapy sessions in his book.